Toreros send rival Aztecs home

LOS ANGELES  Almost four months ago, USD cut the ribbon at Fowler Park only to have San Diego State sweep the Toreros out of their new, $13.8 million stadium.

Austin Green won’t remember those losses as clearly as he will the way he felt walking off the field at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Saturday with a rare postseason win over the cross-town rival.

“I mean, it’s awesome,” Green said after driving in two runs in a 6-3 win over the Aztecs in an elimination game in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional. “There’s a little in-town rivalry that we have going on and it feels great that we got them at the end of the year.

“ … It’s much better to beat them at the end than it is at the beginning because nobody remembers that. We’re going to remember this win -- right here and now.”

For good reason, too.

The two programs had never even reached the postseason in the same season -- let alone played on the same field in a regional -- and the Toreros made the most of the moment with gutty pitching from starter Dylan Covey and opportunistic at-bats after Aztecs starter Michael Cederoth had limited USD to a single hit through the first four innings.

But Dillon Checkal singled to start the fifth, Cederoth put three of the next four hitters on base with a pair of walks and a hit batter, including a free pass to score USD’s first run, and Green greeted reliever Philip Walby with a two-run single.

Just like that, the Toreros led 3-2. And they weren’t done either.

Andrew Daniel added a sacrifice fly and another run scored when a relay throw back to the infield skipped away from third baseman Tyler France, the second error in the inning for the Aztecs.

“That’s college baseball,” USD Head Coach Rich Hill said of the five-run rally. “Yesterday, that happened to us. It was six runs in one inning. Today it was five runs in one inning for us. … Those of us who have been around college baseball enough know that no lead is safe and a big inning can happen in the blink of an eye.”

Covey, though, made his lead stand up.

After allowing a run in each of the second and third innings, the junior right-hander had thrown four straight scoreless frames when San Diego State finally threatened again in the eighth with the Toreros up 6-2 after Austin Bailey’s bloop RBI single in the sixth.

Danny Sheehan’s one-out single interrupted a stretch that saw Covey retire 13 of 15 hitters. Then Ryan Muno chased the USD starter out of the game with a two-out walk that looked like it might cost the Toreros when Tyler France dropped an RBI single off freshman left-hander Troy Conyers in front of a diving Louie Lechich in center.

But Lechich recovered quickly to get the ball into the infield and the relay throw cut Muno down at the plate to end that rally.

The next inning, Conyers retired the side in order to send the Aztecs home on the wrong side of a growing rivalry.

San Diego State still leads the all-time series, 68-53-3. The Aztec are, however, now 0-1 against the Toreros in the postseason.

“Obviously, I think it turns it up a notch,” San Diego State Head Coach Tony Gwynn said. “This is where you want to be -- you want to knock heads and you want to knock heads in a regional. They got the better of us today. You tip your cap. I wish them well. I’m a San Diegan. I hope they do well.

“But between the lines, it’s about getting a W and those three wins we had earlier in the year, they don’t look so good right now.”

Covey allowed three runs on four hits and four walks over 7 2/3 innings, outlasting Cederoth (4.1 IP, 3ER, 5 BB) after he started the game strong.

The Aztecs’ 6-foot-6 right-hander especially turned heads when he ratcheted up three fastballs into triple digits when he struck out USD slugger Kris Bryant looking in the first inning.

In fact, for the second day in a row Bryant, the nation’s leader with 31 homers, was relatively quiet with a walk, a hit by pitch and an infield single in the eighth inning for his lone hit so far in the Los Angeles Regional.

That’s OK. The Toreros are all about proving they are much more than a one-man show these days.

“We all know about Kris Bryant,” said Hill, whose team must still win three in a row to advance out of the Los Angeles Regional. “We all know about P.J. Conlon and what he’s done. We all know how the best part of our team is the team itself and how resilient we are. We play through mistakes.”

OTHER LOS ANGELES REGIONAL GAME

UCLA 6, CAL POLY 4

Kevin Williams tripled and drove in three runs and David Berg struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his 20th save as the top-seeded Bruins came from behind to beat No. 2 Cal Poly in the winner’s bracket.

UCLA starter Nick Vander Tuig shook off a shaky start to pitch six innings for the win. He allowed four runs on nine hits and three walks.

Cal Poly starter Matt Imhof allowed 4 runs on three hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings, while Reed Reilly took the loss with two runs allowed over two innings.

The Mustangs will play USD at 2 p.m. Sunday, with the winner advancing to play UCLA later in the day. The Bruins can close out a Super Regional berth with a win Sunday.